ARTH 3261 - Italian Mannerism: Evaluate Resources

The ability to evaluate information is a skill everyone needs to acquire. It is easy to find poor quality, out-dated, and bogus information. Finding the best information to meet your needs takes a critical eye. To carefully assess and select appropriate and credible information takes time and critical evaluation, especially when you are completing academic assignments. Academic work requires accurate and documented information. This page offers tips and tutorials on evaluating information. 

Fake News! How Can You Tell?!

There has been a lot of controversy lately about Fake News. Every side is claiming the other side is spreading Fake News, nobody is accepting responsibility for spreading Fake News, and the news scene is in total chaos. This hyper sensationalism may lead consumers feeling confused, bewildered, and unwilling to trust ANY news source. Learning to critically evaluate information can help you sort through all of this and determine if what you are reading is indeed Fake. Using the CRAAP Test is a great start, but you can also check out Zach S. Henderson Library's FAKE NEWS guide for additional skills in evaluating news sources. 

Using CRAAP to Evaluate Sources

The CRAAP Test is an easy way to evaluate sources. CRAAP is an easy to remember acronym that walks you through a set of questions to help you evaluate each source. 

C - Currency:  is the material current?

R - Relevant:  is the material relevant to my topic?

A - Authority: Who wrote/created this source?

A - Accuracy: Where does this information come from?

P - Purpose:  What is the purpose of this information (inform, pursuade, etc)?

  Below is a video from McMaster Libraries on using the CRAAP Test, and also a video from Portland State Unversity. They are using a slightly different version of CRAP, BUT I LOVE how they show using the test with actual websites! Below the two videos is a copy of the CRAAP Rubric provided by Lamar State College. The rubric walks you through the CRAAP questions and provides a scoring system to help evaluate sources. Remember - BE BRUTAL in your evaluation! You want to choose sources that will enhance your research!